It's Too Late
by Olive Butter
Summary: What happens when Lily's feelings for James change over the summer? And has his also changed?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is for DarkLord667 Lily "Is it to late?" Evans challenge.**

* * *

The air was crisp with a cool breeze on the morning of September 1st. It was 10:00 AM and people were still flooding in.

Seventeen year old Lily Evans scanned the crowd quickly, looking for any sign of her best friend, Olivia Lloyd.

On the other side of Platform 9 ¾ stood a short brunette who was also scanning the crowd. She quickly found Lily's head of bright red hair and waved her over excitedly.

"Lily!" the girl shouted, throwing her arms around Lily. "How have you been? How was your summer? Can you believe we're finally 7th years? Wow I can't believe after this it's over!"

The girl was talking so fast that Lily didn't have a chance to answer. "Liv! Slow down. I am fantastic. My summer was ok but I didn't get to enjoy it that much. It was filled with Vernon and Petunia's wedding plans." The two girls wrinkled their noses. "And yes I can believe we're 7th years. Wow that was weird to say. 7th years."

Lily suddenly had the memories of the past 6 years at the school. From the first day, meeting Potter and Black to that horrible day in 5th year when Severus called her a mudblood. Tears welled in her eyes. "It's almost over!" she wailed to Olivia, hugging her.

"Shhhh. I know Lily. It's sad, but think. We have our whole lives ahead of us. You and I will be in healer training in no time. Then it will be you and I against the world. And our handsome husbands of course." Olivia said with a smile. "Ooooh look! There's mine now." She pointed at the tall and mysterious Remus Lupin, love illuminating her face.

Lily shook her head with a smile. It was no secret that they liked each other. Well to everyone but themselves that is. Lily snuck a glance over at where Remus was standing and let out a sigh.

There was James Potter, laughing at something his best friend, Sirius Black, had said. His hair was untidy and his glasses a little lopsided. He was so perfect. She smiled still staring. "Come on Liv, let's get a compartment before all the good ones are taken. I have to go up front for head girl duties but I can sit with you later."

The two girls linked arms and strode onto the train. At the same time, the two girls looked back at their respective boys and smiled. They sat down in a compartment closer to the front to they would get good candy when the trolley came around.

Olivia flopped into the seat smiling. "I have so much to tell you!" she gushed out.

"Me too!" Lily told her. "You can go first." She nodded to her friend.

Olivia beamed. "Remus and I were talking over the summer!" She said squealing. "We ran into each other in Diagon Alley at the beginning and he bought me an ice cream from Florean's. That night he wrote me and said it was nice spending time with me and wanted to do it some more. We talked all summer long, but we only got to go for ice cream twice more. And get this, he said he wanted to ask me something today!" She screamed out the last part. Lily jumped up and hugged her

"I'm so happy for you Liv! You deserve someone like him so much!" Lily said excitedly.

Now it was her turn. She couldn't wait to see the reaction on Olivia's face when she told her she thought about it and actually likes James Potter.

The summer was a long one, with all the wedding preperations. Her mom had asked her opinion on everything (although Petunia always said no) soon Lily was thinking about her own wedding. The only person she could picture it with was James Potter. As Lily thought more and more she realized how great James was and how sweet he was. Towards the end of 6th year he had stopped hexing everyone and cut it down to just Slytherins who deserved it.

The pranking didn't go down at all but it stopped being as cruel as some of the previous ones. The Marauder's pranks were always funny so Lily couldn't fault him there.

As Lily opened her mouth to gush out her feelings to Olivia, the compartment door opened and in walked four boys.

First was Peter Pettigrew, the odd one of the marauder's. He was short and pimply with beady little eyes like a rat.

Second in was Sirius Black, the self-proclaimed sex god of Hogwarts. His wavy black hair fell thick, framing his face.

Next was Remus, tall and sandy haired, with a nervous expression as he walked in. His body was covered in scars that no one knew about.

Last was James Potter. He walked in with confidence, a shiny head boy badge upon his chest.

Remus started off "Hey Olivia, hey Lily. How are you guys." His voiced quaked and Lily saw James pat his back. Sirius just smirked.

"Hey Remus." Olivia said sweetly, her face showing nothing but love for the boy. Lily just waved.

"So I was wondering…" Remus was rubbing his legs together nervously on the floor. "Would you be interested in going to Hogsmede with me as my um, my." James hit him on the back again and the word tumbled out. "girlfriend." He looked down anxiously.

Olivia squealed. "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. YES." She said throwing her arms around him. Remus looked up surprised. He smiled after realizing what happened.

The train whistle blew, signaling that it was leaving and Sirius, Olivia, and Peter sat down in the compartment.

"Well we have to go." James said. "Come on Lily, Remus." The three of them walked out of the compartment to the prefect one.

"So James, how was your summer?" Lily asked, testing the waters. She was surprised he hadn't already asked her out.

James smiled "It was great Lily, and yours?" Lily opened her mouth to answer but was cut off.

"James!" a girls voice called from down the hall. It was Marlene McKinnon. Her perfect blonde curls bounced as she ran to catch up with the group. "Hey Lily." She said to the red head. "Hey gorgeous." She told James in a seductive voice. "I missed you."

James chuckled. "It's been a week." He said amused. Marlene pouted.

"So? It was still a week away from you." She said reaching up and kissing him on the lips. They started snogging, right there in the corridor. Lily stood there, staring.

Remus noticed the awkward look on Lily's face and cleared his throat. "We have to go guys, prefect meeting." James broke apart from Marlene and smiled.

"I'll see you later sweetie. Come by my compartment. We're in 205." He said with a smile. Marlene nodded walking away.

No one noticed the tears beginning to bud in Lily's eyes, or her voice crack when she said "I'll be in there in a second. I have to go to the bathroom." And no one was there when Lily dissolved into tears in the empty lavatory and whispered to herself, "It's to late."

* * *

**A/N: So I've never wrote a story like this before. Do you think I should finish this and make it into a real story with a happy ending? Review and let me know!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:Thanks for all the encouragement! I will continue on with the story. It will mainly focus on Jily plot but there will be some subplots with Remus and my OC and maybe a little something for Sirius too. If you guys have any ideas just drop it in the reviews or my PM I'm open to most things and I'll give you credit. Well enjoy :)**

* * *

Lily sniffled as she picked herself up off the dirty bathroom floor. She calmly walked over to the mirror above the sink. She chuckled at the ruined appearance and took out her makeup to help correct the mess.

Finally poised and perfect yet again, she walked out of the bathroom and into the prefect's compartment. James was in the middle of debriefing the new prefects on their new duties. She could make out a little of it as she walked in. "...the first years to their dormitories. After that you may go to bed. Lily and I...Oh hey Lily, you're back." He said nodding to Lily.

"Where are we?" the redhead asked calmly trying to steady her voice.

"We were just talking about duties. I have informed the newbies on what they have to do tonight. You just interrupted me about to tell the schedules." He grabbed copies out of his robes.

"Wow James you really came prepared." Lily said in awe. James had really changed over the summer. He was more mature and he actually was taking this seriously.

"Yup. I thought it best to get this figured out before summer ended so we can get through the meeting quickly. That way everyone can get back to their friends. I know I can't wait to get back." He said, a triumphant look on his face for figuring this all out.

After quickly going over the schedules, the group was finally finished. Lily quickly dismissed the prefects and gathered her stuff. James raced out, with a quick farewell to the compartment we were all in. On his way out he accidently bumped into Lily, causing her to drop all her stuff. Not noticing he continued on.

"Oh no!" Lily cried, tears perking up in her eyes. She quickly reached down and tried to quickly gather her stuff. Remus was still behind and reached down to help her.

"It's ok Lily, I got this." he said, waving her away from the pile of stuff on the floor.

"Thanks Remus." she said with a smile. "And congrats. I always knew you and Olivia would end up together."

Remus blushed. "Really? Was it that obvious?" Lily nodded and laughed as she saw his face turn even redder.

"So was your summer good?" Lily asked as they walked to the compartment.

Remus nodded. "Excellent. I spent it talking to Olive all summer."

Lily giggled. "You already have a little pet name for her?" she asked teasingly.

The werewolf turned red again. "It's fine. It's cute."

The pair walked in silence until they got to the compartment. Remus walked in and sat down inbetween Olivia and Peter who seemed to be having some kind of debate. Lily turned to the other side of the compartment when she saw there was no more room.

In the seat where Lily usually sat was Marlene, snogging James.

Tears once again sparked in her eyes. She couldn't believe it. That was _her_ seat. She had already claimed it when they had come earlier. It wasn't even the marauders compartment.

After saying hello to Remus, Olivia looked up and saw Lily. "Hey Lils, come on in and-oh." Olivia had finally realized the problem.

The rest of the compartment had finally looked up. "Oops." Marlene said with a giggle, lipstick smeared on her face. "Did I take your spot?" To anyone else that would have sounded sincere, but to Lily and Olivia it wasn't.

The girls had spent countless nights consoling girls who had food spilled on them, boyfriends stolen, or homework ruined who had all heard that little 'oops' come out of Marlene's mouth.

Olivia put on her fakest smile. "Oh no problem Marlene we actually were just leaving. I was just waiting for Lily here to get back. Come on Lils." Olivia quickly got up and took Lily by the arms out of the compartment.

As they got farther away, they could here the protest of Remus and Marlene's fake little voice telling them everything was fine and they'd meet up later.

"Olivia that was our compartment. Why couldn't we have told her to leave." Lily asked, trying to dry the tears away.

Olivia scoffed. "We were outnumbered. Remus told me everything this summer. Marlene has James wrapped around her pretty little finger. I'll tell you all about it when we get to a compartment."

"Really Liv? No compartment will be open this late." Lily said, a pout on her face."

Olivia laughed. "Of course not silly, but I know of one that will most likely be pretty much open."

They marched along until they got to the almost back of the train. Before they walked in Olivia stopped.

"This is Alice's compartment. She was in my Muggle Studies class in 5th year. She's always been really shy so she and her boyfriend Frank always sat back here so no one would bother them. Frank graduated last year so she'll probably be alone. She's really nice but she's bad at making new friends so just try to follow my lead." Olivia turned around and rapped quickly on the door.

The two girls could hear stuff shifting inside. Suddenly the door slid open and out popped a girl with short black hair and a kind round face. She smiled when she saw Olivia. "Livvy! How great to see you! It's been forever since we've talked. We have all our classes together but you always sit with Lily. Oh. Hello Lily." The girl had gone from bubbly to quiet in a matter of seconds.

Olivia smiled. "Hey Ali. Our compartment got taken over my the Marauders. Can we please sit with you?" Alice smiled.

"Sure you can." The girl stepped back and let the two Gryffindors inside.

"Ali, this is my best friend Lily Evans. Lily this is my good friend Alice Roth." Olivia said introducing the two.

The two girls smiled at each other and Alice motioned for them to sit down. "So you're in Ravenclaw, right?" Lily asked.

Alice nodded. The conversation went on like this for about a half hour until Alice had finally warmed up to the new girl. "Call me Ali. I can't stand the name Alice. What was my mother thinking?" Alice asked with a chuckle.

As the trolley rolled around they got mounds of candy. The girls easily bought 3 pounds of candy that day.

They traded cards and gossiped about everything and everyone.

"Oh!" Olivia exclaimed, right in the middle of her telling Alice about Remus. "I completely forgot to fill you in on the whole Marlene situation." Alice's face turned into a scowl at the mention of that name.

"I hate her. She tried to steal Frank from me last year. She asked for extra help in Herbology and tried to seduce him. Luckily he's smarter than most guys and stopped it." Alice said with a smug smile.

"So what happened?" Lily asked, leaning in.

"Well Remus told me that Marlene's parents and James parents became friends during our 6th year, so pretty much all summer they hung out together. I guess James asked Marlene for help with you and Marlene being 'ever so helpful' helped him. Well she helped him get over you. She told him that he should find a new girl to distract him and here we are now. He does whatever she says." Olivia said with a disgusted look.

"Since she has James trapped around her little finger she also has Sirius and Peter. We would have been way to outnumbered if we tried to take the compartment back. It would have been 4 against 3 because Remus would have sided with us. That's another reason I dragged you out. I didn't want Remus to have to choose between his friends and me." She said this with a sad look in her eyes.

She then immediatly perked back up. "Well at least he's gotten over you. Now we don't have to worry about hex's being casted at your date for Hogsmede and...wait what's wrong?" Olivia noticed a weird look fall over Lily's face. Liv's eyes narrowed. "You didn't?" Lily nodded and Olivia groaned. "Really? You fell for him now?"

"I was going to tell you earlier but then the Marauder's burst in." Lily said sheepishly.

Olivia groaned again. "Well this sucks." She flopped back in her seat and let our a rasperry through her lips.

"Well there's one good thing right now." Alice chimed in.

"What?" the two best friends said together and immediatly chuckled.

Alice pointed out the window and smiled. "Hogwarts."

* * *

**A/N: So there you have it. For the purpose of this story a compartment only fits 6 people. And Alice's last name is something I made up because I couldn't find anything online about her real maiden name. Review Review Review and don't forget ideas are always helpful and I'm always open to them. I do apologize for my writing sometimes. This is my first Harry Potter story (I'm not counting a reading the books fic) Hopefully chapters will get longer as I go along.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here we go. Enjoy and review! :) Oh and I don't have a beta so please disregard any mistakes.**

* * *

The three girls quickly hopped off the train and scurried to find a carriage. Well that was until Olivia spotted Remus. She ran to him and gave him a hug. Then they went with Peter and Sirius to find a carriage.

Lily turned to Alice but the girl was gone. She had run over to Hagrid to share some new knowledge about plants to him.

Lily sighed. She was alone. She walked to one of the carriages when she was intercepted by a tall boy.

Nate York was the boy of any girls dream. A Ravenclaw, he was intelligent. He was the keeper for his house Quidditch team and also the captain, which helped shape his muscles to perfection. His eyes were a bright ocean blue that seemed to sparkle. His hair was a golden blonde that shimmered in the moonlight. His smile was huge and showed is perfect white teeth. And he was also the guy that Lily had been pretty much in love with. Well that is until she changed her mind about James.

"Hey Lily." Nate said with his dazzling smile. "Did your friends ditch you?"

Lily smiled. "Yup. One to talk about plants. How fascinating! And the other ran off with her boyfriend."

"Well my friends ditched me too. Care to share one?" he said, motioning to a carriage.

Lily nodded and he held the door open for her and climbed in.

"So how was your summer?" he asked, reaching to close the door.

"Oh it was-" she was cut off by a voice.

"Hey is there room for two more." A smiling James Potter asked, grabbing the door before it closed.

Nate grimaced. He did not want to share with Jame Potter of all people. Nate had spent all of last year trying to ask Lily out but was always thwarted by the goons called the Marauders. "Go ahead." He said through his teeth. He didn't want to seem rude in front of Lily.

James pulled open the door and jumped inside, leaving it open for the second person, Marlene.

Marlene pulled herself in. She flashed that famous smile that made most boys heart melt at Nate. "Hey Natie. How are you?" She used her most seductive voice.

"Marlene, don't call me Natie. You know I hate that." Nate said scowling. He turned to Lily. "So what were you saying about your summer?"

Lily blushed. "Oh nothing much. It was good. Lots of wedding plans though which was so boring." She mimed yawning and Nate laughed.

Marlene also yawned and turned to James to talk about her favorite subject, her."

"Mine was the same well minus the wedding plans. All my friends ran off to do stuff with their girlfriends. I mostly played Quidditch. Gotta start shaping up for the season since I'm Quidditch captain" He said beaming.

"Oh so you're captain." James said looking up. Marlene pouted at the loss of attention.

"Yup. Got the badge this summer. Along with the head boy one of course." He said aiming that at Lily.

"Same." James said nodding.

"Jamie." Marlene whined. "Leave them alone and talk to me. Can't you see they don't want you in their conversation. Let Natie flirt with Lils."

Lily was torn on whether she should laugh or roll her eyes. On one hand , she knew for a fact that James hated to be called Jamie. And on the other hand she was annoyed. Did this girl really need to give everyone a nickname?

She could see a little spark of annoyance in James eyes. "Fine" he mumbled and turned back to Marlene.

For the remainder of the ride, Lily and Nate talked about everything from classes to muggle movies.

"Did you see that one with the robots?" Lily asked

"YES! It was amazing." Nate said back.

"What's a movie?" James finally chimed in again.

Lily opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by Marlene.

"Who cares Jamie, we're here." She said as the carriage rolled to a stop. She grabbed James arm and dragged him out.

"Well, um, that was an interesting ride." Lily said, stepping out of the carriage.

"Yeah it certainly was. But it was also so much fun talking to you." He said with a lopsided smile.

Lily nodded. "Yeah we should do it again sometime."

Nate took a breath "Yeah. Maybe we could do it at the next Hogsmede weekend."

Lily didn't know what to say. She was in love with James but she had so much fun with Nate. "Sure." She said not even realizing it. "I'd like that." That's when she spotted Olivia and Remus waving towards her. She blushed and said. "My friends need me, I'll talk to you later." And ran off.

Nate strode off to meet up with his Ravenclaw friends.

Neither of the two noticed Marlene McKinnon running around looking for her boyfriend. Or the scowling James Potter hiding behind the carriage who had heard the entire conversation.

* * *

"So what happened?" Olivia asked, shoving food onto her plate at the Welcoming feast. They were sitting far away from the whole Marauder group because James and Marlene, had decided that dinner was not in fact food, but each other's faces.

Olivia had seen Lily walk away from a grinning Nate and wanted full details.

"Well he saw me alone and asked to sit with me. We talked and such and then he asked me to go to Hogsmede with him." Lily said. Olivia growled in anger at the lack of detail. "Oh and the oh so happy couple was also in our carriage."

"WHAT!" Olivia screamed and immediately clapped a hand over her mouth. People stared for a little and once they were positive there was nothing gossip worthy they looked away. "Are you ok?" Olivia asked, whispering.

Lily shrugged. "Yeah I guess so. It was quite funny to see James get really annoyed with Marlene when she called him Jamie."

"Did he yell?" Olivia asked intrigued.

"Nope. I could tell by his eyes. They just flashed a little every time she said it. Ugh and get this. She called Nate "Natie" and me "Lils"."

The two girls burst into laughter, attracting a few stares from each house. The girls brought it down to a chuckle. The opening feast went by quickly and by the end everyone was stuffed.

As the four houses got up Olivia turned to Lily. "Do you have to bring the first years?"

Lily shook her head. "Nope that's the 5th years duty."

The two started walking up the stairs when they were joined by Remus. He had gotten so sick of the PDA from Marlene and James.

They quickly trudged tiredly up the stairs until they reached the portrait.

"Lavender." Remus mumbled. He was so tired he could barely stand up. Tomorrow was the full moon and he usually felt like this the day before.

The common room was completely empty. This year had a huge ammount of first year which made the sorting go longer. By the time the feast was over it was 11:00 PM. Once the reached the dorm stairs Remus leaned down and kissed Olivia goodnight. "See you tomorrow, love." he said ascending the stairs.

"Come on Lily let's go up." Olivia said in a daze.

"Sorry Liv my dorm is down here. I'm head girl, remember?" Lily asked amused.

"Shoot." Olivia said snapping her fingers, and she ran upstairs.

Lily chuckled and walked over to the portrait on the far end of the common room. It was in the very corner, under the boys staircase so not many people knew it. "Fillybrig." she murmered to it and it swung open. She quickly walked in, eager to get to her bed.

The head common room was beautifully furnished. It was a miny replica of the one outside the door. It had two desks on either side to use for homework. Right as Lily was about to turn the knob into her actual room, the outside door once again opened.

In walked James Potter. "Oh hey Lily." he said with a smile. "Sorry about Marlene today." Lily smiled. He was going to apologize for kicking her out of the compartment. "She gets really annoying with those nicknames." Her smile faltered. Of course perfect Marlene could do no wrong.

"It's fine." she said in a bored voice. Lily turned back to her door to open it.

"So what is a movie." James asked.

Lily turned around again. She was so tired but she really wanted to spend time with him. James won. "Well it's a moving picture story really. Like how wizard pictures can move and sometimes talk. It's both of that but telling a whole story. They're usually about an hour and a half to 2 hours long."

"Oh. Cool. Now I want to see one." James said.

Lily chuckled. "I'll take you one day."

James smiled and walked over to his door. "I'm holding you to that."

Lily chuckled. "Ok, James."

They both turned the knobs and walked into their respective rooms. They both sat down on their bed and smiled and at the same time said "Whoa."

* * *

**A/N: longer than usual for you here. That's a present seeing as I haven't updated in a while. Hope you enjoyed! Review! And if you have any ideas let me know and I will consider it and I will credit you for it. Let me know what you think so I can make it better!**

**~Olivia**


End file.
